A-15-YEAR-OLD boy who had been knocking from “pillar to post” for the past nine months, has finally gotten a place he can call home as a magistrate in San Fernando adjudicated a charge against him for stealing.

After staying at his aunt, and then a month at St Michael’s Home for Boys in Deigo Martin, the father, in a sudden burst of unselfish demonstration of love and affection for his son in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court yesterday, told Magistrate Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds he had found a house, albeit a single-room, for his son.

It was the single-room house which prevented the father who lives at St John’s Village, near San Fernando, from taking in his son to live with him because he had just started a new life with another woman, and the single room was not conducive for a teenaged boy.

The boy ended up before Ramsumair-Hinds in the Sixth Police Court, after he pleaded guilty to stealing an electronic Samsung Galaxy tablet from a school teacher at the La Romaine High School, on the first day of school on September 2, 2013.

The court in determining the appropriate sentence, discovered that the boy had no place to live because his father had taken a new wife and he had told Ramsumair-Hinds that the one-bedroom house was just not conducive for his (the boy’s) occupation.

Ramsumair-Hinds in January, had warned the father of child neglect when he dropped off the boy to stay at a relative’s house since December 27, 2013.

The court allowed the boy to go to his aunt’s home in La Romaine, but on a subsequent date of hearing of the case, the aunt complained she could no longer attend to his needs. The father had told Ramsumair-Hinds, he too could not accommodate his son because of the one-bedroom house he lives in with his new bride. The boy’s mother had passed away.

Ramsumair-Hinds sent the boy to St Michael’s Home for Boys and yesterday when the case was called again after he spent a month there, the boy, his father, his new wife, and the father’s brother, and an aunt, attended court.

The father revealed to Ramsumair-Hinds a change of heart, saying that his brother was willing to allow him and his son to live in a one-bedroom house, but the room is large.

Concern about who would be staying with the boy, the magistrate asked the father, and he said he would.

“And where would be your wife.” Ramsumair-Hinds asked, “because we don’t want to have the same situation as before.”

The father quickly replied that his new wife would be at her mother’s home. Impressed by the turnaround, the magistrate commented, “Ok, we will give it a try. The father seems to be taking steps to do things differently. But your efforts have to be consistent. I don’t want to have a situation where he is staying alone in that house.”

Addressing the other relatives seated in court, the magistrate called on them to seek the boy’s interest first, revealing that a Probation Officer’s report into the boy’s life, had recommended strong family bonding.

Ramsumair-Hinds released the boy into the care of his father on $2,000 bail, with the father to sign as surety.

She imposed a curfew, however, from 8 pm to 6 am during which the boy was told that he should be indoors. He returns to court on August 5.